Oh, by the way... A while ago, Mark Guzdial wrote: >[...] If we're agreed that there is no "geek gene,"
I don't agree with that contention at all, in the sense that I believe that some people have a knack for technology that others don't, that that knack is as much a part of their make up as their height or gender, and that picking up geeky stuff (including programming) is noticeably easier for those with that knack than for those without it. I'm perfectly happy to offer myself as a data point in favour of my claim, since I have a pretty good idea of how I got to be a programmer, and it wasn't because of the concerted efforts of others (including teachers and parents and friends) to push me in this direction. (I realize that one data point doesn't make a trend, even for vociferous values of 'data point', but it's a start.) Rather than being some post-modern development, I think 'geekiness' is apparent throughout history, and has a clear social value, especially since the inventions of the division of labour and written language. It just so happens that our headlong hurtle into a shiny, robot-cluttered future has changed the social evolutionary pressure on us to favour our geeky side more than ever, with a consequent, and strangely satisfying, increase in the whining from the non-geek contingent. (I also happen to think that most of the advances of civilization have been down to geekiness prevailing over brute force and ignorance, but then I would think that.) So I would be, frankly, astonished if it could be shown that *everyone* is equally trainable in programming to a professional standard, any more than it could be shown that everyone could learn to be a professional golfer or a professional artist or a professional mathematician or a professional teacher. Now, where's that shiny robot waiter with my gadget cocktail? -- Frank Wales [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List (discuss@ppig.org) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
